I have not been aware of eating any unprepared food item that had been pressure treated for my good health. I have eaten numerous foodstuffs that had been treated by the aforementioned “cooking” process.

But the treatment raises the interesting topic of food safety in the mass marketplace for fresh produce, meats and the like. With the current tomato debacle, and the relatively recent spinach scare, I’d think we can expect to hear about more alternative treatment methods. For instance, the FDA is apparently already considering safety implications of treating stuff with short bursts of low level radiation. Check it out:

.....just splits some of the DNA etc.
.... damaged DNA, why is this not GM?

uhmmm okay. scanned the reference article.
the three letter combination of "DNA" is not present.

so to _what_ "DNA" do you refer?

.......why is this not GM?
GM = "genetically modified" ?

genetically damaged, ok
genetically destroyed, ok

generically modified implies not only changing the genetic code, but in a way that it survives.

if I reduce a cucumber to ash, would that not be, in fact, "genetically modified?"

and is ashed cucumber "dangerous?"

"But this is still not the whole story, says Brooker. High pressure disrupts other cell structures too, including nucleic acids and ribosomes—the organs that manufacture proteins. "The protein synthesising apparatus seems particularly sensitive to pressure," Brooker says. "In E. coli, for example, protein synthesis is totally inhibited at about 70 megapascals."

if you ashed a cucumber, that would be genocide ( ), or at least a waste. My contention is that with a few bacteria (or other µorganisms and some faulty DNA), a gene modificatin could take place, not ideal??

I'm used to seeing GM as genetically modified, such as crops that have been screwed around with to be drought or pest resistant, or to provide larger yields. Jono's GM seems to be more like genetic mutation, like the two headed cow living next to Three Mile Island, or the Toxic Avenger.

Still the concern is a valid one. By achieving the obvious advantage of treating foods for bad juju, is there a byproduct produced that poses an unseen, more serious health risk? Not all meats and produce end up over a heat source. Currently, evil is being spread by tomatos, a fruit that is acceptable raw in some circles. It hasn't been that long since spinach was also gastronomically offensive. I happen to scrub my tomatos, but am totally unwilling to wipe down a few hundred spinach leaves for a salad. So I can see the potential of these sorts of treatments for fresh foods. The question I can't answer is whether it's worth it.

Just to update people on the subject: I saw a show a while back that featured guacamole being "pasteurized" using a process identical to the one in the article. The process was called "Freshrization" (or something equally tacky).